The Space Between

What Makes It Great? / Featured / April 11, 2019

by Suzanne Révy

When we are young, we find our way around romance awkwardly. Coupling, then uncoupling, as we learn to navigate the rocky waters of our love lives. As we grow into our authentic selves, we may fall in and out of love over and over. And if we are honest, that pattern of connecting and disconnecting continues into our longer relationships and marriages, even in the most healthy and stable ones. Add the Internet and hand-held mobile devices and our relationships become ever more layered and complex. In The Space Between, Edna Cardinale, Director at the Julie Saul Gallery, brings together the work of twenty-seven artists in a group show that explores how we navigate the undulations of romantic love, on view at the gallery in New York City through April 20th, 2019.

“This Photograph is my Proof, 1974” by Duane Michals, courtesy of the artist and the DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Cardinale opens the show with a nod to contemporary life in Eric Pickersgill’s couple in bed staring raptly at absent phones in “Angie and Me.” Next to it, Teri Fullerton’s “Coupling,” a slide show of dating profiles pictures, presented on a cell phone offers a commentary on how the Internet and our digital devices have intruded and changed the romantic game. On the one hand, the Internet makes it easier to meet someone, yet our devices can become a giant distraction impeding our ability to connect in real life. But are modern day technologies really all that different than earlier ones? “This Photograph is my Proof” by Duane Michals depicts a young couple embracing on a bed in a black and white print made in the early 1970’s. The accompanying narrative implies the couple eventually drifted apart or broke up; but this raises the question: how does (or did) photography change our relationships to each other?

“Untitled (Adam and Keely)” 2011/16 by Deanna Pizzitelli, courtesy of the artist and the Julie Saul Gallery, New York City.

“Untitled, 2018” by Clay Benskin, courtesy of the artist and the Julie Saul Gallery, New York City.

The rhythm of this show mirrors the fluctuations between connections and disconnections in a variety of photographs, from the giddiness of young love to the more staid emotions of the elderly. Deanna Pizzitelli’s “Untitled (Adam and Keely)” depicts an intimate dance between two young figures in a delicately printed and intimate photograph or Clay Benskin’s street image of two couples, one gay one straight, embracing and kissing in public. Each image speaks to that flush of excitement at meeting and exploring someone new. Or Yolanda del Amo’s elderly couple, “Edith, Juan, 2007” sitting quietly at a table in a well-appointed room or Martin Parr’s “Last Resort, Plate 1” which present the body language of familiarity in elderly couples who can finish each other’s sentences, so the need for conversation is diminished. And again, questions are raised… will the young lovers last? Do the elderly couples share an abiding love or are there simmering resentments under the surface?

“Edith, Juan, 2007” by Yolanda del Amo, courtesy of the artist and the Julie Saul Gallery, New York City.

“Stone Mountain, GA (couple lying on a rock)” 1994, by Mark Steinmetz courtesy of the artist and the Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York City.

In several images, we are treated to the pleasure of touch. In “Stone Mountain, GA (couple lying on a rock)” Mark Steinmetz presents a languid couple whose intertwined hands in the light of a stormy sky invite viewers to feel that gentle embrace of fingers in the humid light. The cover image of Andrea Modica’s book appears to be a scene that could have sprung from a novella, a couple entwined on the ground are observed by a young girl and her cat on a grey day. Of course, we like to watch others, and Marvin Heiferman’s “IG 102.18” and Kazuo Sumida’s “New York Subway- West 28th street” offer quick and voyeuristic glances of hands in mid-gesture. Are they strangers on a crowded train or lovers on a journey? And finally, Zaneli Muholi captures a furtive grasp to a breast between two women in ““Nando Maphisa and Mpho Sibiya, Sasolburg, Johannesburg, 2006.” They are at ease with each other, yet that touch feels hidden. Is it dangerous or forbidden for them?

“IG 10.2.18” 2018 by Marvin Heiferman, courtesy of the artist and the Julie Saul Gallery, New York City.

“New York Subway- West 28th Street” 1995 by Kazuo Sumida, courtesy of the artist and the Julie Saul Gallery, New York City.

Despite the perils and pitfalls, our most fervent desire as human beings is to connect with one another. It can be at odds with the distractions of our times, creating spaces that expand and contract between love, lust and the bonds we build or destroy in pursuit of those connections. This wonderfully curated show engages viewers on an intimate visual journey of our longing for love and humanity.

“Nando Maphisa and Mpho Sibiya, Sasolburg, Johannesburg 2006,” by Zaneli Muholi, courtesy of the Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York and Stevenson Cape Town Johannesburg.